There were 3868 individual responses in this survey (the 30 responses in 'test' channel were removed).
There were 3236 individual responses in GitSurvey2008 (including 21 responses in 'test' channel).
There were 683 individual responses in GitSurvey2007.
There were around 117 responses in GitSurvey2006.

The table above shows histogram of the number of answered questions by responder from the 30 questions in the survey. Most people answered from 23 to 27 questions from 30. Average number of skipped (not answered) questions is 6.7 +/- 5.9.

Note that in one of questions, "22. Did you participate in previous Git User's Surveys?" lack of answer didn't necessarily mean that somebody skipped this question; lack of answer was there answer in itself. There are also optional (well, more optional) 3 free-form essay questions. That makes 26 questions to answer.

Most answered question was "07. I use Git for (check all that apply)" multiple-choice question.

Number of replies per question

The graph above shows histogram of number of replies per question. As you can see the least replied questions were:

"12. What tool (or kind of tool) would you like to have Git support in?" (free-form essay question),

"19. What features would you like implemented in Git? What features are you missing?" (also free-form essay),

"22. Did you participate in previous Git User's Surveys?" (where skipping means simply not participating in previous surveys), and

"30. What other comments or suggestions do you have that are not covered by the questions above?" (again free-form essay), and also

"28. Which communication channel(s) do you use?" (multiple choice question, without 'other' answer)

Date of response

There are a few spikes spikes on above Completion Rate Graph; from those the following four spikes are most visible:

15 Jul | 573 respondents / day

21 Jul | 622 respondents / day

27 Jul | 155 respondents / day

13 Aug | 103 respondents / day

(note that those results are slightly different from the ones presented in 'partial summary, part 1' thread mentioned above; this might be possibly the matter of different timezones used).

This survey was announced at the following blogs (note that dates below for blog posts are in local timezone of blog, whatever it is, while Survs.com dates are in survey admin timezone, which is GMT+01:00 / +0100):

It looks like the announcement on Hartwork Blog, part of Planet Gentoo, might be responsible for small spike in responses at 27 July. But it might have been cased by announcement arriving via other channels, see answers to question "29. How did you hear about this Git User's Survey?" below.

Survey statistics

Total respondents:

3868

First response:

Jul 15, 2009

Last response:

Sep 16, 2009

Open during:

72 days

Average time:

49 minutes

At most often time between responses was below 1 second (the precision of Survs.com response timestamp), while maximum time between responses was slightly more than 12 hours (half a day).

There were 25 responses in the non-default "GitSurvey2009: no cookies, anonymous" channel that required no cookies, and was totally anonymous (no logging of IP address). This was at the cost of not being able to go back to one's responses to correct or complete it.

About you

01. What country do you live in?

(tabularized free-form single line)

This table is sorted alphabetically.

Country

Count

Perc.

America (possibly USA)

4

0.1%

Argentina

21

0.6%

Armenia

1

0.0%

Australia

121

3.3%

Austria

49

1.3%

Bangladesh

1

0.0%

Belarus

3

0.1%

Belgium

39

1.1%

Brazil

58

1.6%

Bulgaria

6

0.2%

Canada

158

4.4%

Chile

8

0.2%

China

37

1.0%

Colombia

6

0.2%

Costa Rica

4

0.1%

Croatia

7

0.2%

Cuba

2

0.1%

Czech Republic

47

1.3%

Denmark

30

0.8%

Egypt

4

0.1%

El Salvador

1

0.0%

Estonia

9

0.2%

Faroe Islands

1

0.0%

Finland

52

1.4%

France

157

4.3%

Germany

400

11.0%

Gibraltar

1

0.0%

Greece

11

0.3%

Hong Kong

2

0.1%

Hungary

11

0.3%

Iceland

2

0.1%

India

51

1.4%

Indonesia

4

0.1%

Iran

2

0.1%

Ireland

18

0.5%

Israel

22

0.6%

Italy

65

1.8%

Japan

27

0.7%

Kazakhstan

1

0.0%

Korea, Republic of

4

0.1%

Korea (which one?)

1

0.0%

Kyrgyzstan

1

0.0%

Latvia

6

0.2%

Lithuania

10

0.3%

Luxembourg

2

0.1%

Macedonia (former Yugoslav Republic)

3

0.1%

Malaysia

7

0.2%

Malta

1

0.0%

Mexico

13

0.4%

Moldova

4

0.1%

Nepal

3

0.1%

Netherlands

76

2.1%

New Zealand

39

1.1%

Nicaragua

2

0.1%

Norway

63

1.7%

Pakistan

1

0.0%

Panama

1

0.0%

Peru

1

0.0%

Philippines

3

0.1%

Poland

68

1.9%

Portugal

11

0.3%

Romania

22

0.6%

Russian Federation

75

2.1%

Serbia

5

0.1%

Singapore

3

0.1%

Slovakia

4

0.1%

Slovenia

8

0.2%

South Africa

14

0.4%

Spain

59

1.6%

Sri Lanka

2

0.1%

Sweden

73

2.0%

Switzerland

56

1.5%

Taiwan

11

0.3%

Thailand

4

0.1%

Trinidad and Tobago

1

0.0%

Tunisia

1

0.0%

Turkey

12

0.3%

Ukraine

22

0.6%

United Kingdom

293

8.1%

United States

1189

32.7%

Uruguay

4

0.1%

Vietnam

3

0.1%

Invalid answer

7

0.2%

Base

3631 / 3868

As one can easily see, slightly less than third of Git users (32.7%) are in the USA (those who answered this survey, and this question). Next of countries is Germany with around 11.0% responses. Third is United Kingdom of Great Britain (including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) with 8.1%.

The names of the countries were normalized using Locale::Country Perl module version 2.07 (with the fix that Serbia and Montenegro split into Republic of Serbia and Montenegro on 5 June 2006).

Top 12 Countries:

Country

Count

Perc.

United States

1189

32.7%

Germany

400

11.0%

United Kingdom

293

8.1%

Canada

158

4.4%

France

157

4.3%

Australia

121

3.3%

Netherlands

76

2.1%

Russian Federation

75

2.1%

Sweden

73

2.0%

Poland

68

1.9%

Italy

65

1.8%

Norway

63

1.7%

You can also take a look at Git Activity Map at Ohloh, where you can see on (large) Google Map locations of selected people who have Git in a stack, or locations of Git contributors (those with known location).

It is a bit pity that this survey did not include question "Does git.git repository include code produced by you?" (or equivalent), so we would be able to see where the developers are.

Continent

Count

Perc.

Africa

19

0.5%

Asia

201

5.5%

Europe

1769

48.7%

North America

1371

37.8%

South America

98

2.7%

Oceania

161

4.4%

Unknown

12

0.3%

In the table above "Oceania" includes (among others) Australia and New Zealand. As you can see most responders are from Europe (49%, slightly less than half), followed by North America (38% responders).

04. Have you found Git easy to use?

(single choice)

Answer

Count

Perc.

Very easy

356

9.8%

Easy

1348

36.9%

Reasonably easy

1606

44.0%

Hard

301

8.2%

Very hard

40

1.1%

Base

3651 / 3868

Most users find it reasonably easy to easy to use Git.

When analyzing this data (and the data for the question before) you should take into account that somebody considering or finding Git too hard to learn wouldn't be probably Git user, and thus wouldn't fill this survey. So because it is *Git User's* Survey we should consider that results can be skewed towards lower value (easier).

What's interesting is comparing (percentage) results for questions 3. and 4.; how hard is git to learn versus how hard is to use. It seems like Git is reasonably easy to learn, and reasonably easy to easy to use. So it looks like Git just have somewhat steep learning curve, and the difficulty to learn pays in being more powerful to use.

05. Which Git version(s) are you using?

(multiple choice, with other)

Version

Count

Perc.

pre 1.3

9

0.2%

1.3.x

14

0.4%

1.4.x

46

1.3%

1.5.x

698

19.0%

1.6.x

3271

89.2%

minor (maintenance) release 1.x.y.z

978

26.7%

'master' branch of official git repository

220

6.0%

'next' branch of official git repository

43

1.2%

other, please specify

68

1.9%

Base

3666 / 3868

Description:
One can find git version by using "`git --version`" or "`git version`".

"Minor release" is additional specification, so if one for example use git version 1.6.3.3, one should check both "1.6.x" and "minor release".

Analysis:
As you can see from above results great majority (83%) run latest 1.6.x series of git (note: because it is multiple-choice question it means 'at least on one machine'). Only a few use 1.3.x or pre 1.3 versions somewhere.

Only a bit more than one fourth (26.7%) of responders use (somewhere) maintenance releases. That, or the question was,'t formulated clear enough.

06. Rate your own proficiency with Git:

(single choice)

Proficiency

Count

Perc.

1. novice

156

4.2%

2. casual, needs advice

675

18.3%

3. everyday use

1418

38.5%

4. can offer advice

1204

32.7%

5. know it very well

228

6.2%

Base

3681 / 3868

Description:
One can think of it as 1-5 numerical grade of your proficiency in Git.

Analysis:
As you can see most responders know Git enough for everyday use, or
can even offer some Git advice. If we treat possible answers as a
proficiency grade, the average proficiency is around 3.2.

The option named "preinstalled / sysadmin job" means that either
you didn't need to install git because it was preinstalled (and you
didn't upgrade); or that you have to ask system administrator to have
git installed or upgraded.

Note that this question is multiple choices question because one can
install Git in different ways on different machines or on different
operating systems.

Analysis:
Most people (71.5%) use ready binary packages, which was kind of
expected; that is the easiest way.

09. On which operating system(s) do you use Git?

(multiple choice, with other)

Operating System

Count

Perc.

Linux

3223

87.5%

MacOS X (Darwin)

1547

42.0%

MS Windows/msysGit (MINGW)

826

22.4%

MS Windows/Cygwin

367

10.0%

FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc.

271

7.4%

OpenSolaris

120

3.3%

other Unix

77

2.1%

MS Windows (any)

1193

32.4%

Other, please specify

45

1.2%

Base

3682 / 3868

Description:
On Unices you can get the name of operating system by running
"`uname`".

Analysis:
Most common used operating system is Linux, next is MacOS X, and then
MS Windows (on MS Window dominates msysGit version). This is quite
understandable, as Git was created on Linux and for Linux, and it
works best there.

"WYSIWYG tools" option includes word processors such as MS Office or OpenOffice.org, but also tools such as Adobe Acrobat (for PDF) or GIMP (for images), or WYSIWYG DTP tools such as QuarkXPress, PageMaker or Scribus, or WYSIWYG HTML editors such as FrontPage, Dreamweaver or KompoZer.

Analysis:
Most popular kind of tool is programmer's editor with very strong 88%
lead. Next in turn are IDE or RAD with 33%, followed by simple text
editor, with 26%. The WYSIWYG tools are last, with very small 6% of
replies; also people who use WYSIWYG tools also use other kind of
tools to edit (presumably to edit commit message at least).

Description:
Here "graphics diff tool" means tools such as Kompare, and graphical merge tool means tools such as Meld and !KDiff3. Those answers include graphical merge and diff tools used by programmers editors and IDEs.

"graphical history browser (any)" covers tools such as gitk, QGit, Giggle, tig etc., but also built-in git commands such as "`git log --graph`" and "`git show-branch`". If you use one of mentioned tools as history browser, mark both a tool and "graphical history browser (any)"; if you use some graphical history viewer not listed here, please both mark this answer and specify it in the "other tool" answer.

Similarly for other answers marked "(any)".

Analysis:
Currently the above table is only roughly divided into categories and subcategories.

12. What tool (or kind of tool) would you like to have Git support in?

Note that replies might be affected by the fact that announcement about this survey was shown at some git hosting sites, but not at other (additionally users of some git hosting sites may skip welcome page more often than for other hosting site; not all hosting sites have blog or a news / announcements section).

Note also that there probably are other git hosting sites that were not present in the ready list of answers, but are hiding in the "other (please specify)", like for example Codebase.

The leader here is (like in previous years) GitHub (62%); only self hosted has similar amount of replies (57%).

14. How do you fetch/get changes from upstream repositories?

(multiple choice, with other)

Answer

Count

Perc.

git protocol

2818

78.5%

ssh

2562

71.4%

http

1164

32.4%

rsync (DEPRECATED)

19

0.5%

filesystem

868

24.2%

via git-bundle

66

1.8%

foreign SCM (e.g. git-svn)

799

22.3%

Other, please specify

48

1.3%

Base

3588 / 3868

Description:
This question asks about how do you get changes (updates) from
projects you follow into your local repository. It is not about how do
you get latest version of Git.

Fetching (or rather cloning) via bundle could mean that project
publishes ready for download bundles to reduce traffic and load on
server (HTTP download [of bundle] can be resumed, git-clone currently
cannot; one can also distribute bundle using P2P).

16. How often do you use the following forms of git commands or extra git tools?

(matrix)

Answer

never

rarely

sometimes

often

Avg. / Count

git add -i / -p

1259

37.4%

586

17.4%

669

19.9%

849

25.2%

2.3 / 3363

git add -u / -A

1744

51.9%

565

16.8%

453

13.5%

588

17.5%

2.0 / 3350

git am

2128

63.3%

522

15.5%

402

12.0%

273

8.1%

1.6 / 3325

git am -i

2567

76.3%

382

11.4%

188

5.6%

162

4.8%

1.4 / 3299

git apply

1908

56.7%

717

21.3%

441

13.1%

215

6.4%

1.7 / 3281

git apply --whitespace=fix

2503

74.4%

397

11.8%

201

6.0%

146

4.3%

1.4 / 3247

git archive

2246

66.8%

460

13.7%

346

10.3%

170

5.1%

1.5 / 3222

git bisect

1704

50.7%

763

22.7%

541

16.1%

191

5.7%

1.8 / 3199

git bisect run <cmd>

2352

69.9%

474

14.1%

249

7.4%

105

3.1%

1.4 / 3180

git annotate

2174

64.6%

509

15.1%

318

9.5%

155

4.6%

1.5 / 3156

git gui blame

2477

73.7%

340

10.1%

220

6.5%

99

2.9%

1.3 / 3136

git blame

1473

43.8%

724

21.5%

682

20.3%

240

7.1%

1.9 / 3119

git blame -L <start>,<end> etc.

2539

75.5%

342

10.2%

139

4.1%

83

2.5%

1.3 / 3103

git bundle

2680

79.7%

248

7.4%

100

3.0%

60

1.8%

1.2 / 3088

git cherry

2302

68.5%

417

12.4%

251

7.5%

107

3.2%

1.4 / 3077

git cherry-pick

1455

43.3%

604

18.0%

649

19.3%

364

10.8%

2.0 / 3072

git cherry-pick -n / --no-commit

2182

64.9%

476

14.2%

258

7.7%

150

4.5%

1.5 / 3066

git citool

2601

77.3%

186

5.5%

111

3.3%

159

4.7%

1.3 / 3057

git clean

1483

44.1%

602

17.9%

417

12.4%

547

16.3%

2.0 / 3049

git add + git commit

278

8.3%

183

5.4%

393

11.7%

2189

65.1%

3.5 / 3043

git commit -a

431

12.8%

363

10.8%

535

15.9%

1711

50.9%

3.2 / 3040

git commit <file>...

999

29.7%

468

13.9%

529

15.7%

1039

30.9%

2.5 / 3035

git commit -i <file>...

1849

55.0%

508

15.1%

338

10.1%

337

10.0%

1.7 / 3032

git commit --amend

1294

38.5%

470

14.0%

620

18.4%

646

19.2%

2.2 / 3030

git cvsexportcommit

2851

84.8%

103

3.1%

40

1.2%

35

1.0%

1.1 / 3029

git cvsserver

2819

83.8%

122

3.6%

54

1.6%

30

0.9%

1.1 / 3025

git daemon (pushing enabled)

2522

75.0%

300

8.9%

112

3.3%

89

2.6%

1.3 / 3023

git difftool

2253

67.0%

377

11.2%

245

7.3%

146

4.3%

1.4 / 3021

git ... --dirstat

2348

69.8%

339

10.1%

199

5.9%

134

4.0%

1.4 / 3020

git fetch [<options>]

1156

34.4%

656

19.5%

604

18.0%

602

17.9%

2.2 / 3018

git filter-branch

2215

65.9%

560

16.7%

176

5.2%

64

1.9%

1.4 / 3015

git format-patch

1778

52.9%

521

15.5%

421

12.5%

292

8.7%

1.7 / 3012

git grep

1949

58.0%

467

13.9%

254

7.6%

339

10.1%

1.7 / 3009

git imap-send

2748

81.7%

142

4.2%

70

2.1%

47

1.4%

1.1 / 3007

git instaweb

2375

70.6%

332

9.9%

183

5.4%

116

3.4%

1.3 / 3006

git log --grep/--author/...

1408

41.9%

619

18.4%

569

16.9%

407

12.1%

2.0 / 3003

git log -S<string> (pickaxe search)

1987

59.1%

515

15.3%

326

9.7%

172

5.1%

1.6 / 3000

git log --graph

1692

50.3%

662

19.7%

361

10.7%

278

8.3%

1.7 / 2993

git merge

809

24.1%

581

17.3%

820

24.4%

781

23.2%

2.5 / 2991

git merge with strategy

2151

64.0%

517

15.4%

207

6.2%

115

3.4%

1.4 / 2990

git merge --squash

2008

59.7%

490

14.6%

278

8.3%

208

6.2%

1.6 / 2984

git mergetool

1839

54.7%

400

11.9%

304

9.0%

431

12.8%

1.8 / 2974

git pull (no remote)

732

21.8%

510

15.2%

575

17.1%

1147

34.1%

2.7 / 2964

git pull --rebase [<options>]

1251

37.2%

603

17.9%

504

15.0%

580

17.2%

2.1 / 2938

git pull <remote>

486

14.5%

550

16.4%

738

21.9%

1090

32.4%

2.8 / 2864

git pull <URL> <ref>

932

27.7%

635

18.9%

439

13.1%

697

20.7%

2.3 / 2703

git push

110

3.3%

158

4.7%

359

10.7%

1563

46.5%

3.5 / 2190

Base

3363 / 3868

Description:
This question (and its continuation below) is entirely optional.

17. How often do you use the following forms of git commands or extra git tools? (continued)

(matrix)

Answer

never

rarely

sometimes

often

Avg. / Count

git relink

2753

87.0%

152

4.8%

138

4.4%

123

3.9%

1.3 / 3166

git rebase

742

23.4%

704

22.2%

791

25.0%

869

27.4%

2.6 / 3106

git rebase -i

1331

42.0%

453

14.3%

552

17.4%

717

22.6%

2.2 / 3053

git reflog or git log -g

1992

62.9%

486

15.4%

383

12.1%

148

4.7%

1.6 / 3009

git remote

1027

32.4%

617

19.5%

885

28.0%

443

14.0%

2.3 / 2972

git remote update

1905

60.2%

451

14.2%

330

10.4%

248

7.8%

1.6 / 2934

git request-pull

2482

78.4%

243

7.7%

135

4.3%

48

1.5%

1.2 / 2908

git revert

972

30.7%

975

30.8%

773

24.4%

178

5.6%

2.1 / 2898

git send-email

2382

75.2%

244

7.7%

150

4.7%

109

3.4%

1.3 / 2885

git show-branch

2171

68.6%

386

12.2%

229

7.2%

94

3.0%

1.4 / 2880

git shortlog

1996

63.0%

514

16.2%

260

8.2%

104

3.3%

1.5 / 2874

git shortlog -s

2277

71.9%

316

10.0%

170

5.4%

110

3.5%

1.3 / 2873

git stash

865

27.3%

430

13.6%

788

24.9%

789

24.9%

2.5 / 2872

git stash --keep-index

2328

73.5%

303

9.6%

157

5.0%

82

2.6%

1.3 / 2870

git submodule

1941

61.3%

467

14.8%

289

9.1%

172

5.4%

1.5 / 2869

git subtree

2590

81.8%

170

5.4%

61

1.9%

45

1.4%

1.1 / 2866

git svn

1470

46.4%

473

14.9%

414

13.1%

507

16.0%

2.0 / 2864

git whatchanged

2261

71.4%

338

10.7%

161

5.1%

98

3.1%

1.3 / 2858

git gui

1822

57.5%

408

12.9%

256

8.1%

335

10.6%

1.7 / 2821

gitk

995

31.4%

444

14.0%

489

15.4%

687

21.7%

2.3 / 2615

Base

3166 / 3868

Description:
Explanation: "Rarely" means that you use mentioned form of command
either rarely, or you have used it only a few times.

Questions 16 and 17 (its continuation) are purely optional (as are the
rest of questions in survey). If you don't feel like filling this
questions, please skip them.

Note: git-subtree is managed out of tree, as a separate project (not
in git.git repository, not even in contrib/ area). Originally
git-subtree was submitted for inclusion, and later was considered for
'contrib/', but it was decided that it would be better if it mature
out-of-tree, before resubmitting.

18. Which of the following features have you used?

(multiple choice, with other)

Feature

Count

Perc.

git bundle (off-line transport)

255

8.4%

eol conversion (crlf)

474

15.6%

gitattributes

298

9.8%

mergetool and/or difftool, or custom diff/merge driver

1024

33.8%

submodules (subprojects)

1003

33.1%

subtree merge (optionally git-subtree)

152

5.0%

separate worktree / core.worktree

116

3.8%

multiple worktrees (git-new-worktree)

119

3.9%

alternates mechanism (sharing object database)

154

5.1%

stash (optionally "git stash --keep-index")

2141

70.7%

shallow clone (e.g. "git clone --depth=<n>")

370

12.2%

detaching HEAD (e.g. "git checkout HEAD^0")

696

23.0%

interactive rebase (small scale history editing)

1420

46.9%

interactive commit / per-hunk comitting / partial commit

1369

45.2%

commit message templates

178

5.9%

git-filter-branch or equivalent (large history rewriting)

442

14.6%

bisect (optionally "git bisect run <script>")

1159

38.3%

committing with dirty tree (keeping some changes uncommitted)

1658

54.7%

non-default hooks (from contrib/hooks/ or other)

520

17.2%

shell completion of commands

1756

58.0%

git-aware shell prompt

1154

38.1%

git aliases, shell aliases for git, or own git scripts

1386

45.7%

Other, please specify

23

0.8%

Base

3030 / 3868

19. What features would you like implemented in Git? What features are you missing?

better default hooks for git-svn, e.g. creating new branch in git would create a new branch in svn (partial svn branch integration)

git-svn in C, not in Perl (depending on libsvn C API)

more flexible git-svn wrt trunk/tags/branch names, or better examples

better git-p4

portability

git-daemon support in msysGit

git-daemon in msysgit

easier msysGit upgrading (keep the same options as previous install)

better MS Windows suport

better encoding support on MS Windows

graphical history browser for MS Windows

better graphical tool for OSX, with integrated merge tool

portable TortoiseGit / Git-Cheetah for USB (PortableApps)

bindings

libgit / LGPL libgit

Git.pm better supported

pull/merge support in EGit/JGit

write plugins using scripting languages like Perl or Ruby (?)

plugin architecture like bzr and hg has

python bindings

installation

make uninstall

What you think of Git

20. Overall, how happy are you with Git?

(single choice)

Answer

Count

Perc.

unhappy

35

1.0%

not so happy

157

4.4%

happy

842

23.5%

very happy

1841

51.3%

completely ecstatic

711

19.8%

Base

3586 / 3868

There were some complaints during planning stage of this year survey that the answers for this question are not symmetric; nevertheless it is set of answers that was used in previous survey(s), and it would help comparing data with previous surveys to keep the current form.

Most responders are "very happy" with Git, and this answer seems to be a center of responses. One should take into account that if one is unhappy with Git, it is less likely that one would continue using it (unless other circumstances would force using it, like the project one contributes to using Git as DVCS of choice), thus less likely to be Git user and to participate in this Git User's Survey. There can be bias because it is Git survey; it might be different if it was generic survey about (distributed) version control systems.

21. In your opinion, which areas in Git need improvement?

Please state your preference.

(matrix)

Answer

don't need

a little

some

much

Avg. / Count

user-interface

502

14.6%

976

28.3%

1179

34.2%

791

22.9%

2.7 / 3448

documentation

408

11.8%

1034

30.0%

1347

39.1%

604

17.5%

2.6 / 3393

performance

2348

68.1%

737

21.4%

209

6.1%

56

1.6%

1.4 / 3350

more features

1733

50.3%

1105

32.0%

407

11.8%

69

2.0%

1.6 / 3314

tools (e.g. GUI)

787

22.8%

742

21.5%

953

27.6%

802

23.3%

2.5 / 3284

localization (translation)

2326

67.5%

427

12.4%

241

7.0%

98

2.8%

1.4 / 3092

Base

3448 / 3868

Going by average rating (the number before slash '/' in the last column of the table above), it is documentation (2.60) and user-interface (2.59), and then tools (2.51) that needs improvements. Going by the percantages of respective responses, areas that needs improvement 'much' are tools (24%), UI (22%) and documentation (17%); the same set, different priority. Areas that needs 'some' improvement are documentation (40%), then UI (33%) and tools (30%). Areas that 'don't need' improvements are localization (translations) and performance, both with around 69%, then 'more features' with 51%.

The answer about translations might be not representative, because this survey is in English, and it was announced on English-language sites. So there might be some bias towards using English, and away from using localized version.

Changes in Git (since year ago, or since you started using it)

22. Did you participate in previous Git User's Surveys?

(multiple choice)

Survey

resp [%]

resp [n]

in year

in 2006

10.8%

92

117

in 2007

30.8%

263

683

in 2008

97.1%

828

3236

Base

853 / 3868

Note that opposed to other questions, for this one not answering the question is a legitimate answer, and not skipping it.

"In year" column refers to number of replies (number of responses) in the Git User's Survey for given year.

Percentages are relative to the number of people who answered this question, not to the number of people who answered (participated in) this survey.

Year

resp

resp

in year

/ 3519

/ in year

in 2006

2.5%

75.2%

117

in 2007

7.1%

36.8%

683

in 2008

22.8%

24.8%

3236

Without further analysis (and the data that we don't have) we can only assume that 2006 survey (narrowly announced) was answered mainly by hard-core Git users and contributors, which follow Git announcements and participate in surveys. Therefore large number of people who participated in 2006 survey also participated in 2009 survey.

Note that 2008 (previous) and 2009 (this one) surveys were announced in slightly different ways: 2008 was announced on git mailing lists, 2009 was announced on blogs and hosting sites.

23. How do you compare the current version with the version from one year ago?

(single choice)

Answer

Count

Perc.

better

1486

49.0%

no changes

244

8.0%

worse

11

0.4%

cannot say

1293

42.6%

Base

3034 / 3868

Description:
The version from approximately one year ago is 1.5.6 from 18-06-2008, the last version in 1.5.x series (except maintenance releases from 1.5.6.1 to 1.5.6.6). Major controversial change in 1.6.0 was installing most of the programs outside your $PATH.

unconfigured git-push issue now a big warning (preparing for the future incompatibile change)

you can use @{-1} to refer to the last branch you were on

"git diff" learned --inter-hunk-context and can be told to run --patience diff

git-difftool can run graphical diff tool

(see individual RelNotes for more details)

Analysis:
Most people (50%) think that Git improved since year ago; very few (10 in 2785) think it is worse... but almost as many 'cannot say' (42%) if it is better than year ago.

If we take 'cannot say' as indication that responder didn't use Git a year ago, and that is the reason they cannot do comparison, it seems that there are many new Git users participating in this survey.

Documentation. Getting help.

24. How useful have you found the following forms of Git documentation?

Analysis:
Least used form of documentation is Git Wiki (http://git.or.cz/gitwiki at the point of running this survey, http://git.wiki.kernel.org currently) with 36% responders never using it, but those that use it feel that it is "somewhat" useful to "useful".

Both help distributed with Git (manpages, Git User's Manual, HOWTOs, etc.) and on-line help (including but not limited to Git Community Book, and tutorials and guides on Git homepage) are almost the same useful, with help included in Git felt to be more useful than on-line help (49% vs 43% is "useful", 36% vs 40% only "somewhat" useful).

25. Have you tried to get help regarding Git from other people?

(single choice)

This question, and questions following it were meant to be about getting help from other people, rather than trying to find help by self. From the set of "other (please specify)" answers for "help channel", which include among others many instances of "Google search" or equivalent, it looks like it was not entirely clean.

Answer

Count

Perc.

Yes

2261

64.7%

No

1236

35.3%

Base

3497 / 3868

As you can see 2/3 responders tried to get help regarding Git from other people.

26. If yes, did you get these problems resolved quickly and to your liking?

(single choice)

Answer

Count

Perc.

Yes

1458

62.2%

No

133

5.7%

Somewhat

752

32.1%

Base

2343 / 3868

Consistency check: 2082 people answered that they tried to get help about Git from other people, but we have 2157 responses in this question...

It looks like we have good community surrounding Git, if 2/3 Git questions are resolved quickly and accurately, and only 6% couldn't get quick response and one to their liking.

Analysis:
Most used 'channel' is to simply ask somebody better versed in Git personally (58%), then is #git channel with usually fast real-time response (31%). Git mailing list has only 12% of replies, below (quite new) forums and project mailing lists (19% - wide category), instant messaging (19%), and quite new StackOverflow (17%), and very similar to microblogging platforms such as Twitter or Identi.ca (also 12%).

"Git for Human Beings" Google Group is rarely used, with only 2% of responses...

As for "other (please specify)" response:

There are some responses ("Internet search", "Google", a book) that show that it was not entirely clear that the question was about asking _other people_ for help regarding Git, not searching for help oneself.

Some responses (e.g. "colleagues") were variant of provided channel.

Some responses were more detailed specification (description) of channel used; examples include "#dri-devel on freenode", "Rick (friend)", "IRC (channel of project using git)", "Rotating my chair and asking", etc.

And there were channels that were not included in the list of provided answers (some because channel is rare, some because survey author didn't think of such channel):

GitHub mailing list / GitHub Google Group

asking a guy who gave a talk about git at a conference

messages through GitHub

private email

direct email with tutorial author

msysGit mailing list / msysGit Google Group

Server Fault (but Stack Overflow is on list)

Specialists at the work office

28. Which communication channel(s) do you use?

Do you read the mailing list, or watch IRC channel?

(multiple choice)

Channel

Count

Perc.

git@vger.kernel.org (main)

390

41.6%

Git for Human Beings (Google Group)

74

7.9%

msysGit

98

10.4%

#git IRC channel

516

55.0%

#github or #gitorious IRC channel

195

20.8%

#revctrl IRC channel

4

0.4%

Base

938 / 3868

Note that percentage is relative to the (small) number of replies to this question, not relative to the number of all responders.

Among listed channels, most commonly used are #git IRC channel on FreeNode with 54%, and git mailing list (git@vger,kernel.org) with 42%. Third is #github and #gitorious IRC channels together, with 22% or replies to this question.

About this survey. Open forum.

29. How did you hear about this Git User's Survey?

(single choice, with other)

Answer

Count

Perc.

git mailing list

270

7.7%

git-related mailing list (e.g. msysGit)

39

1.1%

mailing list or forum of some project

201

5.8%

#git IRC channel topic

63

1.8%

announcement on IRC channel

56

1.6%

git homepage

443

12.7%

git wiki

95

2.7%

git hosting site

502

14.4%

software-related web site

140

4.0%

news or social news site (e.g. Digg, Reddit)

95

2.7%

blog (or blog planet)

748

21.5%

other kind of web site

44

1.3%

Twitter or other microblogging platform

350

10.0%

other - please specify

438

12.6%

Base

3484 / 3868

30. What other comments or suggestions do you have that are not covered by the questions above?